31 January 2011

Diary Alert: BAZAAR Saturday 12th March St Anselm's Hall

30 January 2011

Expenses fraud MP still picking up full salary | News

Expenses fraud MP still picking up full salary | News

25 January 2011

Special offer for KA members: White Bear Theatre: “The Cherry Orchard” by Anton Chekhov

Special offer for Kennington Association members

Support your Local Theatre (and get a bargain) by seeing: “The Cherry Orchard” by Anton Chekhov

GREY SWAN is proud to announce the UK première of a new literal translation of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece The Cherry Orchard at the White Bear Theatre, opening on 3 February 2011.


In a world on the edge of change, a family struggles to come to terms with the threatened sale of their home - their Cherry Flower Estate.

After five years away Ranyévskaya has returned from Paris penniless. Her family dream of planned marriages, bank loans and asking distant relatives for financial help to save their estate, while a local friend and businessman proposes cutting down the orchard to build luxury villas and holiday homes.

Dreams are formed, new futures are drawn up and love and friendship offered, while the auction date moves ever closer.


In the 100th year since the play was performed in London and following on from 150th Anniversary of Anton Chekhov’s birth, Grey Swan brings together an ensemble company to explore a new and poetic literal translation of his final masterpiece.

The production is directed by Timothy Stubbs Hughes, who trained as an actor at Manchester School of Theatre (1987-90) and completed his Master of Arts in Theatre Direction at Goldsmiths College (1994-96). In November 1991, he spent two-weeks in Nottingham as part of an International Workshop with the Russian Theatre Director and theatre-maker Genrietta Yanovskaya, where she “instilled a sense of the scope, resonance and vision of Chekhov’s words, and highlighted a process that simply was about the actor existing on stage in front of an audience”.


Performance Dates:
2–26 February 2011
Tuesday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Sundays at 6.00pm

Tickets:  £13 (£10 Conc.)
Box Office: 020 7793 9193

White Bear Theatre
138 Kennington Park Road
SE11 4DJ


SPECIAL OFFER

The White Bear Theatre Club is offering ‘Concession Rate’ (£10) seats for this brilliant production. 

To book call 020 7793 9193 and quote ‘Kennington Association Offer’.

The White Bear now has it’s own Exclusive Lounge Area where patrons can sit and enjoy a drink and a chat before the show.  The theatre itself is fully air conditioned.


23 January 2011

Susannah York obituary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/16/susannah-york-obituary

SOUTH LONDON PRESS TODAY | NEWS | Daredevils’ 29th-floor new year leap | 2011

SOUTH LONDON PRESS TODAY | NEWS | Daredevils’ 29th-floor new year leap | 2011

Situations Vacant: Customer Safety Steward Positions at The Kia Oval

Hi all,

Please find some information about stewarding below and would grateful if you could send out to you variety of contacts and networks. We hope that we can promote local labour opportunities to those close to the Kia Oval

Many thanks and Regards

Steven Blackwood


cid:image001.jpg@01CBB8C0.7674AA60
Customer Safety Steward Positions at The Kia Oval
Leisure Support Services are proud to be delivering stewarding and security at The Kia Oval. With a vision to deliver a world class experience to visitors at the venue, we are seeking qualified, motivated and friendly individuals to join our safety steward/customer service team.

Candidates must hold or be willing to gain a Level 2 qualification in Spectator Safety. An SIA Door Supervisor License is preferred but not essential.
 
Please visit www.thekiaoval.com/jobs to apply



Steven Blackwood
Community Executive
Direct Tel: 0207 820 5718
Fax: 0207 820 5601
The Kia Oval
FOLLOW US:Surrey Cricket Facebook  Surrey Cricket Twitter
THE KIA OVAL, KENNINGTON, LONDON, SE11 5SS. Switchboard 020 7820 5700

The Durning Library

The Durning Library 

We have heard from Councillors that there are to be no immediate library closures,
which is encouraging;
but, there will be consultations in April-June about the future of Lambeth's library service
and closures cannot be ruled out. 
If you want to keep the Durning library open, please show your support
and become a member without delay if you have not already done so. 
It costs nothing and involves only signing a form at the library.

Priscilla Baines
Chair
Friends of the Durning Library
durninglibraryweb2.jpg

Traffic issue

Dear Neighbours

A KA member writes:


"I don't know whether other people have been affected, but a new traffic island, separating cars from the bus lane has been placed on Kennington Park Road as it becomes Brixton Road.  This makes it very dangerous for cars to drive down Kennington Park Road/Brixton Road to Camberwell New Road (since they can't use the left lane as it's a bus lane) and so are positioned on the right.  Buses, meanwhile, are trying to take the right hand fork down Brixton Road, but they're positioned on the left, making a dangerous car/bus cross over inevitable.  I've attached a bad diagram, but could KA enquire whether others have this issue?"

Do please let us have your comments.


Very many thanks
Best wishes
Cathy Preece
Administrative Assistant

19 January 2011

The Cinema Museum - open event on 29th Jan

The Cinema Museum - open event on 29th Jan

Hi there,

I am sure Martin will contact you as well, but i am inviting you to my open event at The Cinema Museum on Saturday 29th Jan, 11am to 2pm. A great chance to have a tour of their fantastic collection, plus we have an exhibition about the history of some local estates, Wellington Mills and Cooper Close. It's a family frinedly event, with activities for kids, cartoons in the cinema and a face painter. And of course the cafe for tea and cake.


--
Abigail Tripp
ABS Communications
NEW 07588 50 26 15 NEW
http://www.abscommunications.co.uk/
Living Memory Heritage Project.jpg

17 January 2011

Vauxhall City Farm : AGM - Saturday 29th January 2011

Vauxhall City Farm : AGM - Saturday 29th January 2011

We would like to inform you that
the 2010/11 Annual General Meeting of

Vauxhall City Farm
will be held at the farm in the classroom,
at 165 Tyers Street, London SE11 5HS.

Time: 11am to 3.30 pm

(Family activities will start from 11am,
and the official business and talks will commence at 1.30pm)

RSVP to
vcf@btconnect.com or 020 7582 4204

Linda Craig
Interim Director
Vauxhall City Farm
165 Tyers Street,
London SE11 5HS
0207 582 4204

13 January 2011

Eric Illsley MP admits fiddling £14,000 expenses | News

Eric Illsley MP admits fiddling £14,000 expenses | News

12 January 2011

Princes & Paupers: A "Local London" Walk in Kennington : Saturday 15th January - 10.45 am Kennington Tube

The 'Princes and Paupers' guided walk around Kennington
is on this Saturday with Isobel, Blue Badge Guide,
starting at Kennington tube station at 10.45 am.

The cost for members of KA will be £6,
a discount of £2 on the full price.


Jan. 15                                                   
Princes  & Paupers
A "Local London" Walk in Kennington    
10.45 am                                               
Kennington Tube

10 January 2011

Opportunities at Vauxhall City Farm

We have a vacancies for a farmyard manager and for weekend volunteers.
 
 
Kind regards
Linda Craig
Interim Director
Vauxhall City Farm
165 Tyers Street,
London SE11 5HS
0207 582 4204

Vauxhall City Farm - Vacancies for farmyard manager and for weekend volunteers.
 
Farmyard Manager
 
This is an ideal opportunity to become involved in one of the hidden treasures of London.  Covering 1.5 acres of land, Vauxhall City Farm is home to over 80 animals and provides a chance for Londoners to meet farm animals face to face.  It also provides opportunities, education and training for people in the local community and beyond.
 
We are looking for a Farmyard Manager to join our team in this very busy and varied environment. This position is permanent subject to the continued funding of the project. 
 
The successful applicant will be expected to ensure a high standard of animal husbandry and deliver a range of social, educational, training and recreational activities. They will supervise and support a diverse range of trainees, volunteers, work placements with a range of support needs and to maintain a safe and open access farmyard for all visitors.
 
Applicants should be comfortable working in a busy and varied environment, and have proven ability of project management relating to city farms or similar organisations.
 
Pay:               £20,000 to £23,000 pro rata (dependant on criteria met on person specification)
 
Hours:           37.5 hours per week (to include at least one weekend day a week).
 
To discuss the post with a member of staff and/or request an application pack,
please call 020 7582 4204 or email vcf@btconnect.com
 
Closing date: 12 noon 26 January 2011
 
Interview date: Saturday 5th February 2011 (times to be arranged)
 
The post will be offered subject to an enhanced CRB check and successful applicants will need to disclose any warnings and/or charges against them during employment.
 

Weekend Volunteers


Vauxhall City Farm is a free of charge charity urban farm located in an inner city area and is open to the public 5 days a week. We have a large collection of rare breed animals, a riding therapy centre, vegetable gardens and a wildlife garden.

We are looking for a team of volunteers to help weekend visitors to the farm enjoy their visit and learn more about food, farming and the environment. You’ll gain valuable experience working in an outdoor education setting while leading guided tours, animal handling and family learning activities. You will also be responsible for promoting and distributing visitor packs, collecting feedback, monitoring visitor figures and providing a warm welcome to all visitors.

There will also be opportunities for volunteers who would also like to work with school groups on weekdays.

Volunteers must be able to commit to one Saturday or Sunday a month. You will be working in pairs so please feel free to volunteer with a friend! We’ll ask you to fill out an application form and provide two character references. Shortlisted applicants will be asked to attend a volunteer open evening that will include a short informal interview.

If you are interested in volunteering at the farm please email vcfeducation@btconnect.com to request an application pack. For more information please phone Hannah on 0207 582 4204.


Vauxhall City Farm is a UK registered charity no. 281512

 
Company no. 1524041
Vauxhall City Farm
165 Tyers Street
London SE11 5HS

07 January 2011

The discerning drinker: rural France fights back | Life & Style

The discerning drinker: rural France fights back | Life & Style

Urgent: Roots & Shoots 2011

Apologies if you have already received an email from me. It highlights the importance of the situation.

This year the Roots & Shoots Training Centre has experienced a reduced number of referrals for the first time in 25 years. This significantly impacts our funding and ability to provide supported training for young people in the future. This year we are fully funded and have a wealth of resources to support and encourage students onto successful paths. In order to remain a sustainable training centre we depend upon active and strong relationships with referring staff. We appreciate all of your efforts and many of you have given above and beyond in terms of time and resources. Thank you!

If you are able to pass this message on, share information about Roots, would like to find out more about our current provision (we have changed in recent times, so please ask!) or make a referral please get in contact with me at the centre by phone, email or drop in.

We are a forward thinking and ambitious team that work hard to provide a friendly, supportive and ambitious learning environment for often very marginalised and vulnerable young people. We want to keep doing this for another 25 years and appreciate all of your efforts.

Thank you for your continued support,

Matt Brownlee

020 7195 0237
020 7587 1131

www.rootsandshoots.org.uk (see front page for a short film about student experiences at Roots)










Rounded Rectangle:     



For more information contact Matt Brownlee (Direct) 020 7195 0237 (Reception) 020 7587 1131 (Email) employmentofficer@rootsandshoots.org.uk ; Walnut Tree Walk, Lambeth, SE11 6DN

04 January 2011

A day taking in the life of London

A day taking in the life of London

By Graham Reid

With all due respect to Dr Samuel Johnson who said, "When a man is tired of London he is tired of life," he was speaking before the chaos of modern life: Tube delays; pubs with pokie machines and football on giant flat screens; young bankers with a few lagers in them who think they are East End 'ard men... It's possible to be very tired of London. That said, no journey through life is complete without having engaged it. But with what? Here are some suggestions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10697274

The King's Speech: How clever sets create a compelling picture of 1930s London

The King's Speech uses period locations that capture the feel of Depression-era Britain. Even the dirt on the streets was authentic, and the smog effects set off the fire alarms in John Lewis

Geraldine Bedell
Sunday January 2 2011
The Observer


http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/02/the-kings-speech-period-sets


Colin Firth makes his way down an opulent and very long room, its ceiling elaborately studded with gold mouldings, its panelled walls oppressively gilt-sprigged, garlanded, swagged and punctuated by Louis XIV-style cherubs. Firth is playing George VI on his way to make his first wartime broadcast and the room is in Buckingham Palace ? except it isn't, of course; it's actually in Lancaster House, tucked away between the Mall and St James's.

Now used by the Foreign Office for diplomatic conferences and assemblies, Lancaster House may actually be the grander of the two: when Queen Victoria once visited, she told its owner: "I have come from my house to your palace." The overblown state drawing room, with its exuberant gilt trellises and traceries, suits the logic of a film that deals with the pressures facing a man who is intensely shy and hampered by a terrible stammer yet reluctantly becomes a public figure.

 [http://www.kingsspeech.com/" title="The King's Speech]The King's Speech shifts between grand royal residences and depression-scuffed 1930s London, with much of the action taking place in the consulting room of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a maverick who works in a plain, scruffy space with dark wood and not much furniture. The big question of the film is how, by visiting this room, Firth's character will overcome his stiffness, uncover the private man beneath the protocol and prove that, unlike his elder brother, off gallivanting with Mrs Simpson, he is in touch with grimy 1930s Britain.

The production team were determined not to make a prettified costume drama. "When we were financing the film, there was a belief that this kind of movie had become unpopular, that audiences wouldn't connect with it," says Iain Canning, the producer. "Everybody felt it was important to bring back those aspects of cinema that Britain does very well ? historical drama with rich production design ? so we were keen to avoid the cliches of period films; we wanted London to be authentic, not look like some strange postcard from the past ? clean, with blue skies."

They looked at filming in Glasgow, Liverpool and Dublin, but eventually decided to shoot in London in the low light of last December and January. Director Tom Hooper has recreated London in Lithuania, South Africa, the US and Hungary, but never previously here in his home town, let alone in Regent's Park, which he walks through on his way to the cutting room. The team anticipated that there would be enough peasoupers to hide inconveniently modern lampposts, and that by using the real Harley Street and a tenement building in Kennington for Logue's home, the shots would have more depth and resonance than is possible with CGI.

Hooper wanted a "smoggy, grungy look", according to Amy Merry, who worked on the production design. "When we were shooting exteriors we threw dirty water over everything. We filmed in Harley Street on a Sunday so we closed the road in the early hours and a gritting van came along at 5am and covered the ground with dirt. Then we pumped out so much smog that we set off the fire alarms in John Lewis."

The actual rooms Logue practised in were too small to film so the team found a building a block away, 33 Portland Place, which has an unusual vaulted room with large leaded windows at one end, reminiscent of a Venetian palace, and roof lights that make it look a bit like an artist's studio and allow some light in on the pervasive gloom.

This room also has extraordinary walls, decorated in distressed browns and oranges like an exotic damaged fresco, if in autumnal colours. When the team arrived, one area was covered in wallpaper infused with oil, which had then been half-scraped, half-burned off. Eve Stewart, the production designer, loved the mottled, peeling effect so much that she decided to reproduce it across the whole wall. The room became so striking that very little furniture was required, and the almost empty set gives the actors space, in Rush's case to make Logue theatrical and expansive; in Firth's, to allow his character, who in the manner of royals in those days has far too many names ? Bertie, the Duke of York, King George VI ? to emerge from behind his carapace.

Stewart, who previously recreated 1950s London in Vera Drake, researched for a couple of months at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Geffrye Museum of interior design, as well as in photographic libraries and by reading Logue's diaries. She describes the consulting room as a method set, the few props all there for a reason: model aeroplanes to signal the warmth of his life with his sons; a photograph of himself playing Othello in an amateur production (he was a failed actor); some games he might have used to teach children with speech impediments, which Amy Merry researched at the Institute for the Deaf. "You'd bring a prop to Tom," Merry says, "and he'd always want to know if it was true to life."

Before Edward VIII's abdication, the Duke and Duchess of York lived at 145 Piccadilly, the location for which was (surprisingly, when you see the film) also 33 Portland Place. In addition to the wood-panelled extension, the house has a number of elegant eau-de-nil rooms designed by Robert Adam. Firth and Helena Bonham Carter didn't even have to go outside to cross the fictional barrier between stuffy royal residences and ordinary London.

The website of 33 Portland Place [http://www.33portlandplace.com/" title="33 Portland Place] describes the house as "shabby chic". In the film, it looks elegant although not particularly luxurious and certainly not very comfortable. (The family seem to spend a lot of time on the landing.) "It would have been tempting to make everything look lush, but it was the Depression and no one did things up," Stewart says. "The royals also had a kind of disregard for decor. We got hold of the diaries of the princesses' nanny and she said 145 Piccadilly was a horrible dusty building, draughty and not very well heated."

The King's Speech opens, dramatically enough, at Wembley Stadium, a sequence that was shot at Leeds United's Elland Road ground and the Grattan Stadium in Bradford. Hooper had directed The Damned United at Elland Road, so knew it was one of the few places that could stand in for the old Wembley, where, in 1925, the Duke's stammer first came to public attention when he gave a halting, hopeless, humiliating Empire Day speech.

The crew had to wait until 10pm to get into the stadium, following a match; overnight, the stands were filled with an inflatable crowd. According to Amy Merry, these blow-up people ? actually only blow-up upper bodies ? are much more convincing than CGI. "They look very funny when they arrive. They came in period costume because they'd already been used for The Changeling. But once they're put in the seats and inflated, they look great."

The biggest challenge for the production team, Stewart says, was "no money and lots of sets". At less than ?10m, the budget was tight; Lancaster House alone cost ?20,000 for a day and supplied only two scenes ? the walk to make the broadcast and the official photograph afterwards. The speech itself was shot off-site, "pretty much in a cupboard".

The production also used Battersea power station, which did duty as the BBC wireless control room, using machinery that was already there, supplemented with dials moulded from flan cases. Logue's home was an atmospherically beautiful tenement in Kennington, south London, where, again, there was a lot of dirtying-down and gritting over road markings. "We destroyed the window frames ? only with paint, of course, but a lot of the residents were alarmed," Merry says. Locals wanted to keep the Bovril ad the team painted on a wall, but it had to be removed with a water cannon. It would have peeled off in the rain eventually anyway.

Despite the royal settings, The King's Speech is a remarkably brown film. The palaces are intimidatingly, rather than comfortably, luxurious. The production design plays into the sense of Firth's character struggling to be a king, which, for him, means struggling to be himself.

"There was a real commitment on the part of the whole team to put the money on screen," Canning says. "We knew if we could make the setting authentic, paradoxically that would make the story timeless. We wanted nothing out of place to jolt you away, nothing to get in the way of the emotions."

A new year but same old Tube... | News

A new year but same old Tube... | News